Federer Cruises Past Benneteau at Olympics

Hopp Schwiiz! Hey all, great match from Roger today which was what I expected after struggling just a little in the first round against Falla. Today was a totally different story and Roger came up with the goods breezing through 6-2 6-2, a peRFect prediction by yours truly.

The only real sniff that Benneteau got today was in Rogers opening service game, where two errors saw Roger slip to 0-30 and then the Frenchman made deuce. After that it was plain sailing, Roger broke easily in the next game and was able to cruise through the first set, breaking again at 5-2 to take the set 6-2.

After Roger held his opening service game from 0-30 you kinda just knew he was going to have a good day at the office, his serve was finding spots early and unlike when he met Benneteau at Wimbledon it was Fed who dominated the rallies and early exchanges. Roger was also very solid on serve, dropping only 5 points on it after the deuce of the first game.

Second Set Domination

Securing a double break to take the first set worked out peRFectly here because it meant Roger was serving first at the start of the second. Roger is one of the best, if not the best, front runners in the game. With Benneteau down a set and having to keep serving to level up proceedings it meant there was far more pressure on his own serve (that he'd already lost twice in the first set).

At 2-1 Roger moved up a gear and broke again before holding and then breaking yet again at 5-2 to take the match. Roger only conceeded 5 points on serve again and hit 24 winners to 7 unforced errors throughout the match, very decent stats.

Fed Congratulating The Crowd After His Victory

I had a good time on court. I thought the atmosphere was good

Swiss Precision

Today was a very impressive performance from Fed and really you have to call it a clinic. I figured it would be after the 5 setter at Wimbledon because it's pretty rare that Roger struggles against a player twice on the bounce.

There was also a mental advantage from Fed's side of the net because he really took Benneteau's legs away at Wimbledon and outlasted him despite at one stage been 1 game away from losing.

Today I was particularly impressed with Roger's movement, he was able to hit the inside out forehand very well all day and this coupled with precision serving was probably the key to the match.

At Wimbledon against Benneteau he didn't hit that shot well early on, but when it's on, like today, the majority of points are played on Roger's terms. When he is able to dictate with his forehand, he only really has to play half the court, whereas Benneteau has to cover all of it. It's almost impossible for Benneteau to hit a backhand down the line because it's such a low percentage shot, if he falls short or doesn't get close to the line, he leaves the cross court wide open for Roger to find a winner. Because of that he's forced to hit cross court, where Roger runs round his backhand and eventually pushes his opponent deeper behind the baseline, allowing him to either a.) draw the error, b.) coast in and find a volley winner, c.) try the dropper, d.) hit inside in down the line or e.) hit an extreme angle inside out forehand winner. It's really such a dominating play that gives Roger many many options and as you can see from the scoreline it's very tricky to find an answer to or combat it with any great deal of effectiveness. You have to be a left handed moonballer or hope Rogers forehand is AWOL, both of which are rare!

Predictions vs. Istomin

To be honest I've not seen a whole lot of Istomin before, he's only ever played Fed twice (losing both times) and doesn't have a great record on the tour with no titles but he did reach his career high ranking of #34 this year.

I do however think he's a fairly accomplished grass court player, Wimbledon is his best result at Slam level and he took Berdych to 5 sets on the grass in 2010. He made the 4th round this year and would have played Roger in the quarter finals had he not lost to Mikhail Youzhny.

I think this match might be trickier than the Benneteau one but I think Roger will get the job done. I kinda think he could drop a set but that's a slim chance to I'll go for a 7-6 6-4 victory.

Huge fan of Roger Federer - I'll pretty much try and watch all his matches from Grand Slam level right down to ATP 250. When I'm not watching or tweeting about tennis I play regularly myself and use this blog to share my thoughts on Fed and tennis in general.

I remember almost having a heart attack when I was following live scores on my mobile. I had to manually refresh the page to see the updated scores and when the score was 30-30 on Roger’s service game (to stay in the match), I did not want to press the refresh button in the possibility of seeing match point for Benneteau!

oh !! why you you don’t care , it is important to fed so it should be so for his fans , i hope he get the goldslam to join agassi & nadal and save no #1 come on fed plz be optimistic he can do it if he is focused

Yes it was a peRFect prediction. I have not been able to see any of his games at the Olympics. I was traveling on Saturday and got up at 5:45 am on Monday and Roddick was playing his match.i was expecting Fed to play. So not knowing the exact time between 7-3 EDT is hard and there are no repeats on The Tennis Channel. They should be allowed to do that. I do hope he plays early tomorrow so I can see at least one game.

Mississippi. I did see it today on Bravo. I watched the first part until it started raining. Thanks though. I think it was around 8:00 CDT. I hope that he will play earlier tomorrow. I hope he starts off better tomorrow if not Isner will pull another Swiss game. He has got to get the Gold now.

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About peRFect Tennis

Hey, I’m Jonathan. I started up peRFect Tennis back in May 2011 because I wanted to be able to share my thoughts on Tennis, and on my favourite player Roger Federer.

I first took notice of Fed back in 2001 when he beat Sampras at Wimbledon. Back then, like most Brits I was a Henman fan, clinging onto the belief he could still win Wimbledon.In fact, I was actually glad Tim beat Roger at Wimbledon that year!

Ever since then though, I’ve followed Federer’s career closely, been lucky enough to see him play live on several occasions and now use this blog to analyse matches, make predictions, and share everything and anything Federer related.

If you want to learn abit more about peRFect tennis and what to expect from my blog, then head over to my about page.